Making your blog into a book

Natalie, I'm answering your question!

This is for anyone who has a blog. Did you know you can make your blog into a book? You can. I've done two--one for 2007 and one for 2008. (You choose which entries to use; it can be a few from a certain time period, or a whole year like mine, or longer.) Both turned out great--very sturdy and professional-looking.

The company I used is blurb. You download their booksmart software (easy), and it "slurps" your blog. You can then edit each page's layout--sometimes you might want the page to feature one large picture with your text, or make one page a photo collage, for example. There are dozens of layouts for both text and pictures. You don't have to use each and every blog entry you wrote, and you can add entries or pictures as well.

Two helpful hints:

1) You must have a gmail account. At least, that was my experience. I pounded my head into a brick wall trying to make booksmart log into blogger with my "regular" hotmail account for longer than I care to admit. (I believe this is because blogger and google/gmail are related . . . but I'm not sure.) Finally I created a gmail account and it worked just fine.

2) For the first 6 weeks of this year I got a message like "booksmart is experiencing technical difficulties and must shut down." I was so frustrated and thought there was something wrong with my computer or its capabilities. Then one day, everything worked just fine! So I guess they really *did* have technical problems. So if this happens to you, don't give up. Just try again in a few days.

When you're done editing, you can choose how you want your book printed: softcover, hardcover with dust jacket, or hardcover with image wrap. There is a price difference of course. I chose the hardcover with image wrap both times and I'm very pleased. I consider it to be our family history.

You can preview my book here and see the difference in pricing. Pricing is done per page so yours would be potentially less expensive than mine. Regardless of length, it was totally worth it.

Booksmart also allows you to create other types of books. My friend Carmen (or her sister?) made books for her parents' birthdays. Each child contributed pictures and childhood memories, which were uploaded into the software. I can imagine that they made for very special gifts.

I wouldn't have known about this either if not for a friend mentioning it on her blog, so . . . I'm passing the info on to you!